@@bskec2177 But what YDAW does is covering pop media or toy reconstructions, not the scientific ones. I would want to see wrong scientific reconstructions
It seems quite plausible to me that the adults could keep the coloration they had as juveniles, but even that would show significant predation of juvenile armored dinosaurs, possibly while they were protected by adults... Still a frightening implication!
Countershading is more useful as camouflage for water dwelling animals... terrestrial animals just seem to have lighter bellies by default or because there is little need for camouflage or sun protection on the underside of an animal.
@timeshark8727 how does that account for the trend of larger terrestrial species, ones at the higher end of their food chains, displaying a distinct lack of countershading?
@@alexmidgley7933 You mean like water buffalo, buffalo, rhinos and elephants? That's an interesting point, I have no idea. Although, those sorts of animals tend not to have any patterns and very little in the way of color, other than black to gray, to begin with. There are also quite a number of terrestrial prey species that are smack in the middle of the food chains that don't have any countershading. Like wildebeest, zebra, hogs, goats, etc. Also some things that have countershading with no discernable reason for it... like shrews, rabbits, almost all lizards and snakes, etc. Its a facinating topic, but I think saying "countershaded, so must have been hunted" is an extreme oversimplification.
I always think of how many Fossil we have destroyed through mining where we might have over looked something incredible and destroyed it, feels really lucky to see something this incredibly preserved
No doubt true. While much has been lost so much has been found as well. I can imagine a paleontologistist asking for funding to dig a hole the size of where this Ankylosaur was found.
50 or so years ago i used to live at my grandparents who had a coal fire and the amount fossil leaves we found was amazing but we looked at the in the coal and they went on the fire as we had no idea what they came from :( I wish we had kept many of them as they looked like autumn leaves.@@carlosandleon
I saw this dinosaur in person, and it was incredible. It looked like it was a sleeping animal, covered in dust. And the wires that showed the rest of the body was a beautiful addition.
Please consider continuing this "Most Accurate...Ever Reconstructed" Series!!! If you'd like suggestions, here are a few: -Pterosaurs -Marine Reptiles such as Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs & Mosasaurs -Small Invertebrates that got trapped/fossilized in Amber -Feathered Theropods such as Archaeopteryx, Incayaku the Penguin or the ones from the various formations in the Liaoning Province of China (i.e. Anchiornis, Sinosauropteryx, Microraptor, Beipiaosaurus, etc.) -Mammals of the Ice Age that were preserved as frozen carcasses and/or featured in cave art
I have lived most of my life assuming we would never truly know what dinosaurs and ancient creatures looked like. Just artist interpretations. Then we began to calculate muscle and build based on walking patterns. Then we found specimens like this, ridiculously well preserved. And now we are finding out what colors they had. And even the behavior that goes along with it. It's mind boggling how much research gets done to bring us this information. Thank you for sharing it! Bonus: and may all this information about accurate reconstruction inspire even more artistic expression! Without the paleo artists we wouldn't even know where to begin.
That's a great idea for a series! I knew about borealopelta but not about psittacosaurus. My next suggestion would be the foot of that duck-billed dinosaur.
@@Saurophaganax1931definitely if it were possible to bring dinosaurs back I say we shouldn’t mutate a chicken to resemble one not only is it immoral and wrong but that’s basically creating a news unknown to any environment which could dispel disaster and chaos
Also worth noting, countershading may have given them better survival odds during youth, before reaching the size needed to defend themselves properly. So it may not actually be something thats important to them as adults, just a holdover from when they were young, and countershading would have greatly aided survival.
When I think of extant animals that change their coloration with age, countershading is commonly the adult form, while more aggressive dappled or striped camoflauge is more common for the young.
Why didn’t they lose it in adulthood though? Color can change easily. For example, large tortoises have intricate patterns to camouflage them with the leaves when they are young, but they become mostly unicolor in adulthood, because they don’t need as much camouflage any more.
My wife and I recently completed a bucket list item (for me!) of driving the Alaska Canada Highway round trip. One of the most important stops for me was the Royal Tyrell Museum. It dud not disappoint! There were two fossils I particularly wanted to see for myself. This one and Tiktaalik, which I had read about in Neil Shubin's excellent book, "Your Inner Fish". Just amazing to see these examples of fossil preservation and examination!
i recently got to visit this amazing fossil at the Royal Tyrrell, what an amazing experience. i’m lucky to live in such a fossil rich part of the world. great vid! :)
I went to Alberta recently and visited the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller. This is an amazing specimen to say the least! It literally gave me goosebumps when i walked up to it! I highly recommend taking a trip there! They have so many amazing specimens, including an awesome T-rex named "Black Beauty" in its death pose!
Ankylosaurs are my absolute favorite dinosaur! I would love to see an overview of all of the described members of this family. Thank you for all of your great content.
I would love to see more videos to this series! An idea for another video is for the best preserved hadrosaurs. I think there are a few "mummified" specimens, and the famous Dakota edmontosaurus hoof that you could feature in the episode. Keep it up Ben!
OMG please continue doing these videos on ancient animals that are really well preserved. Things like this are fantastic and its hard to find information about what the different creatures are. I spent a few hours trying to find research studies, but it is a lot.
Nicely done, Ben. The Tyrell is on my list if/when I get to Alberta again. I remember the announcement when they unveiled Borealopelta so it has been interesting hearing what has been learned from it.
Wow! I saw this in the Royal Tyrell collections before it was put on display! I was doing a project for school, and I got to go all over in the museum and see wicked cool stuff! I still have a picture of it! It’s one of my favorite specimens and I’ve seen it all over social media, even a show about it on tv! And to think I am one of the few that got to go right up close to it without a display barrier… I think those of you who read this now know how excited this makes me haha!
The countershading on Borealopelta makes a lot of sense when put into context. Today's large herbivores are mainly fighting groups of smaller predators whereas Mesozoic-era herbivores had to contend with predators that were much *much* larger and therefore hiding was a smart idea
Ah, the Royal Tyrrel Museum. I haven't had the pleasure of returning their in many years, but going there is a child is what took my interest from just "dinosaurs are cool" towards the first seeds of what would be a proper appreciation for the fields of paleontology and ecology.
You should do a video on Sasha the wholly rhino. I love all Pleistocene species, but when it comes to mummies mammoths seem to get all the love and I’d love to learn more about wholly rhinos. Love your content!
Say Ben, that is an excellent report on the Borealopelta Markmitchelli. I remember when it was found and the buzz it created even then. All this time I had no idea the extimated size of the animal. I tend to agree with the Bloat and Float scheme. Huge present day animals Bloat and Float, and with the right timing I am convinced that a Borealopelta could indeed have bloated enough to float out to deeper water where once the gas bubble was breached by scavenging activities, the remains would then have sunk down to the bottom. Of course in the present day, there are ample benthic scavengers who would have consumed any an all soft tissue. Perhaps that biofauna was not yet as developed back then or perhaps this specimen sank into a brine pool or anoxic layer? Your suggestion of it being washed out to sea in a tsunami like situtation is also a great possibility, and also consistent with the specimen being quickly covered by sediment, which would have prevented scavenging of the soft tissues that were found in the fossil.
When i first saw your video about the well preserved Psittacosaurus specimen i was literally thinking about the more recently found Borealopelta: I was hoping you would eventually talk about it in detail and I'm very glad you did! Definitely make this a series!
Another cool thing about the Royal Tyrrel is that they have an annual lecture series with scientists from around the world presenting their work at a level non-specialists can understand. Many of these lectures are on their youtube channel.
My first thought about the counter shading is that there would be a strong selection pressure to for it to help aid the survival of small juvenile specimens and no selection pressure for the coloring to change when the animal grows to near its full adult size even if there are no predators able to take then down by then.
This was outstanding. The food that the dinosaur ate the various comparisons with other Dino's . Did bro Jeremy draw one of the illustrations? He did a great job too. Well done.😊
Wow. I've seen this fossil before but this video really shows how important it is. Great work Ben and co! My recommendations for this series are microraptor and sinosauropteryx - we actually know what colours their feathers were.
the fact that we can so accurately reconstruct at least three dinosaurs (Borealopelta, Psittacosaurus and Archaeopteryx) is amazing, and truly is like a window into the alien yet familiar past
My uncle was the guy running the digger when they found it! Shawn Funk! Our entire extended family got a behind the scenes tour of the museum after they got it there, I even met Mark Mitchell! It was an absolutely amazing thing to experience for a dinosaur obsessed kid haha
Another thing I love about Borealopelta is that it’s yet another powerful confirmation that our methods for interpreting, extrapolating, and reconstructing morphologies and biomechanics are laudably fucking good at this point 👏👏👏 there is little doubt to be had anymore about that. This is an easy way to disabuse a lay person of the idea that anatomists and paleontologists are simply slapping bones together capriciously. We know quite a bit about how body plans work, we know what made the dubious reconstructions of the Fossil Wars so bad (which also means it’s incredibly hard to lie in that manner in paleontology), and modern day beautiful discoveries like this show that we’re usually on the right track. What a beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL discovery. It should honestly be considered one of the “prehistoric wonders of the world” for how well it was preserved and how much we are able to learn from it 🥹
WOW that description of the plates and spines were very impressive. Imagine the kind of predators that forced this animal to evolve over time into a walking tank with spikes.
I live near the Tyrell, and have visited this specimen in person. Pictures do not do it justice. You can see *eyelids*. The entire museum has world-class exhibits.
This is good, please keep doing more! I'd like to think of myself as being on the more "science" side of "pop. science," but I never would have read the journal article(s?) you're using as source material. Maybe "most 'scuffed' but still interesting fossil" could be interesting.
Ooh this is such a good idea for a series! There are so many great lagerstatte fossils! Here is a starting list of some really interesting ones to do vids on: Materpiscis Typhloesus Fossils from the Joggins Fossil Cliffs Arthropitys bistriata Longisquama Coelophysis from the Ghost Ranch area Vampire squid from Ya Ha Tinda Stenopterygius crassicostatus with preserved young Enantiornithines from Las Hoyas Archaeophis proavus or other fossil from Monte Bolca Messel formation fossils
This is actually considered to be one of the greatest preserved dinosaur fossils ever unearthed. The man who spent time refining it deserves a nobel prize for his contribution to natural history. Keep up the good work Ben communication of paleontology is essential for understanding life today
I'm so glad you two have survived the crushing tragedies of broken plaster. Oh the humanity! Sue the tyrannosaur and Quetzalcoatlus come to mind for future stories. There were a lot of other species competing for those conifers higher up. It seems more likely the Ankylosaur simply couldn't reach the conifers but loved those succulent, easy to reach ferns.
The way it ended up practically "mummified" in sediment makes me think that it did die (by normal death, some other reasons including drowning, but not necessarily by predation) and float due to bloat as spring rains flowed over recently fire-swept hills/mountains taking it and a lot of silt down stream to be deposited in the same location such that no to very few water predators got to it to destroy the remains.
I saw it in person and was almost moved to tears it is so beautiful. I can't describe how moving an experience it is if you are truly passionate about these kinds of things. Make a pilgrimage to the Drumheller Royal Tyrell museum if you can. You will not be disappointed.
This is so exciting. I’ve always wondered how we could guess what dinosaurs look like - in this case we don’t have to! Its natural reddish color is so beautiful too. I hope one day I can see the exhibit in-person too because it seems really breathtaking. It helps me imagine how amazing it looked alive
Mines like this are a double edged sword. Without the economic incentive to dig, it would never have been found. Yet one can’t help but think of all the fossils that phosphate mines, coal mines, etc have destroyed. Still, it’s actually kind of interesting to think of the vast expanse of Cretaceous seabed they had to sift through to find something this rare - admirable diligence to find this needle in a vast, sulfidic haystack! They essentially had to surface an entire Cretaceous seabed to do so
Extraordinary. I love how you often explain the deductive reasoning behind conclusions regarding lifestyle and habitat. So often these conclusions are just presented without context and nay-sayers immediately scoff and dismiss the information. I wish more presenters would take the time to both inform and educate the way that you do. Primarily I refer to mainstream presenters, as I know there are also other TH-cam presenters who take the time to explain things, filling the niche that television was originally supposed to occupy.
Great video! I would think that ankylosaurs living in recently burned forests could also make them more susceptible to flash-flooding events since rain isn't slowed by vegetation and is blocked from soaking into the ground by ash, as well as picking up lots of debris. This would also further increase the chances of finding them washed into bodies of water and quickly covered by protective sediment
id love to see one on that mayasaur or albertasaur i forgor, but the one where we got a fossil of a mummified one and it perserved like even the blood n stuff you talked about it on your channel when it was first revealed
I'm glad to see my favorite plastic representative of Ankylosaurus was nearly spot on down to properly extended shoulder spines and color pallette. In the 80s. Nice.
Considering everything was larger in the Cretaceous, I'd be interested in seeing a relative size comparison between modern countershaded herbivores and Cretaceous countershaded herbivores. I am willing to opine at this juncture that we would find a very positive correlation to countershading dropoff once the relative sizes of prey and predator are taken into account. Perhaps the Nodosauridae are just the deer of the Cretaceous. That's an odd thought isn't it?
The dinosaur was found at the Suncor oil sands facility. When the shovel operator hit it he had a good hint at what he had found. Perhaps 30 years ago it would have been buried and forgotten but the oil sands needs good public relations right now with all the environment stuff. It would/did represent a delay in production. You can view this dinosaur at the Royal Museum in Drumheller Alberta.
50 or so years ago i used to live at my grandparents who had a coal fire and the amount of fossil leaves we found was amazing but we looked at the in the coal and they went on the fire as we had no idea what they came from :( I wish we had kept many of them as they looked like autumn leaves
There could be a few good reasons for exploiting the burnt forest niche; certainly the benefits of sweet new growth, the benefits of charcoal on the gut - and the releasing of more nutrients from "cooked" food.
At last the scientific information from Markmitchelly . Thanks I look forward to hearing more as it comes out. Every time I watch your channel I learn new stuff and enjoy it. Could you please do something on feathers ? these days Artists reconstructions can show anything from fully scaled to fully feathered images, Possibly due to how old the reconstruction itself is. A time line explanation of what families are thought to have evolved them? Ankylosaurs aside it can be difficult to know how to Imajin them. PS possibly an episode for the "Most Accurate" series.
The Royal Tyrell is set to do a major renovation to the Dinosaur hall this fall, so more of a reason to go back and see what's there. I love that museum with a passion.
More than anyone has a right to know about ankylosaurs, in general, and this one in particular, in one easily digestible presentation. Thanks guys. Your enthusiasm and ability to communicate about this fascinating subject, is one of the quiet gems of TH-cam, thanks again.
I would love to see more videos on these exceptionally preserved fossils that allow for accurate reconstructions of extinct animals. Alternatively, I'd also love to see the opposite, cases where we're able to infer a surprising amount about an animal from very scant fossil remains. Regardless, I'll look forward to more paleo content in the future!
Heya, just thought you should know that every time you karate chop your desk while handsplaining dinosaur reconstruction, your mic picks it up as a huge bass note and shakes the soeakers in my headphones, home audio, and desktop speakers. Id reccommend not karate chopping the desk, but thats like telling an Italian to talk while sitting on their hands, so instead maybe -8db on low frequencies during editing or something.
I don't know how much information there is on that, but a video about the most accurate non-mammal synapsid reconstruction to date would be interesting
I would like a look at Dunkleosteus, Megalodon, Patagotitan, and Arctodus focusing on reconstruction with the new information and evidence that is coming out for these animals. Maybe take a look on why certain interpretations were depicted and what shifted the change to what they are depicted as today with scientific evidence.
For the color I think it’s basically as it usually is just a extra defense to avoid confrontation.Borelapelta could most definitely take on the predators in the area but due to the amount and size of them it got it’s color to avoid it as much as possible
I think the spikes being such a lighter color was a warning signs for predators when they got close so they can see the spikes and maybe decide on not attack it.
i had the joy to see this specimen this spring it was amazing. they have an entire room in the Royal Tyrell Museum dedicated to it. Im very grateful that it is required by law for such discoveries to be given to the proper scientific authorities
You should do a video on the most inaccurate reconstructions known to date
The Magdenburg Unicorn would be on that list.
"The most inaccurate reconstruction of a prehistoric hominid of all time-YOUR MOM!"
There is a TH-cam channel called "Your Dinosaurs are wrong" or Ydaw" that covers inaccurate reconstructions already.
The original spinosaurus, the original therizinosaurus
@@bskec2177 But what YDAW does is covering pop media or toy reconstructions, not the scientific ones. I would want to see wrong scientific reconstructions
The fact that borealopelta was countershaded shows how much pressure it was under from predators despite all it's armor.
unfortunately nodosaurs never evolved a countermeasure for being flipped upside-down lmao
It seems quite plausible to me that the adults could keep the coloration they had as juveniles, but even that would show significant predation of juvenile armored dinosaurs, possibly while they were protected by adults... Still a frightening implication!
Countershading is more useful as camouflage for water dwelling animals... terrestrial animals just seem to have lighter bellies by default or because there is little need for camouflage or sun protection on the underside of an animal.
@timeshark8727 how does that account for the trend of larger terrestrial species, ones at the higher end of their food chains, displaying a distinct lack of countershading?
@@alexmidgley7933 You mean like water buffalo, buffalo, rhinos and elephants? That's an interesting point, I have no idea.
Although, those sorts of animals tend not to have any patterns and very little in the way of color, other than black to gray, to begin with.
There are also quite a number of terrestrial prey species that are smack in the middle of the food chains that don't have any countershading. Like wildebeest, zebra, hogs, goats, etc.
Also some things that have countershading with no discernable reason for it... like shrews, rabbits, almost all lizards and snakes, etc.
Its a facinating topic, but I think saying "countershaded, so must have been hunted" is an extreme oversimplification.
I always think of how many Fossil we have destroyed through mining where we might have over looked something incredible and destroyed it, feels really lucky to see something this incredibly preserved
You’d be surprised how intact plant matter is shaped in all the coal mines that simply get crushed for coal
@@carlosandleonI have seen videos showing ancient leaf patterns on the coal mine tunnels!
No doubt true. While much has been lost so much has been found as well. I can imagine a paleontologistist asking for funding to dig a hole the size of where this Ankylosaur was found.
Eh. Without mining we would have never discovered this fossil in the first place.
50 or so years ago i used to live at my grandparents who had a coal fire and the amount fossil leaves we found was amazing but we looked at the in the coal and they went on the fire as we had no idea what they came from :( I wish we had kept many of them as they looked like autumn leaves.@@carlosandleon
I saw this dinosaur in person, and it was incredible. It looked like it was a sleeping animal, covered in dust. And the wires that showed the rest of the body was a beautiful addition.
Seeing boreapelta in person at the Royal Terrel is something else. Its an incredible specimin in a truly world class institution. Well worth visiting!
I really want to go now!
There's something surreal about being able to see the face of a living being that died an unfathomable time before.
Please consider continuing this "Most Accurate...Ever Reconstructed" Series!!!
If you'd like suggestions, here are a few:
-Pterosaurs
-Marine Reptiles such as Ichthyosaurs, Plesiosaurs & Mosasaurs
-Small Invertebrates that got trapped/fossilized in Amber
-Feathered Theropods such as Archaeopteryx, Incayaku the Penguin or the ones from the various formations in the Liaoning Province of China (i.e. Anchiornis, Sinosauropteryx, Microraptor, Beipiaosaurus, etc.)
-Mammals of the Ice Age that were preserved as frozen carcasses and/or featured in cave art
This fossil is breathtaking. A window to a different time of the world.
I have lived most of my life assuming we would never truly know what dinosaurs and ancient creatures looked like. Just artist interpretations. Then we began to calculate muscle and build based on walking patterns. Then we found specimens like this, ridiculously well preserved. And now we are finding out what colors they had. And even the behavior that goes along with it. It's mind boggling how much research gets done to bring us this information. Thank you for sharing it!
Bonus: and may all this information about accurate reconstruction inspire even more artistic expression! Without the paleo artists we wouldn't even know where to begin.
That's a great idea for a series! I knew about borealopelta but not about psittacosaurus. My next suggestion would be the foot of that duck-billed dinosaur.
The one from Tanis?
@@dragonfox2.058I checked which one it was and it's the Edmontosaurus mummy called Dakota. Are we thinking about the same specimen?
@@alisav8394 can't remember
@@dragonfox2.058 that's a Thescelosaurus.
I remember seeing about this as a kid in some paleo news article and thinking that we were going to finally bring dinosaurs back from the dead
And then a few years later paleontologists went and found a hadrosaur foot that was essentially mummified making that dream seem even more realistic
And then the public finally caught on that birds are dinosaurs and the dream has come full circle.
And then some scientists are making chickens look more like a non avian dinosaur basically making a dinosaur into a dinosaur
@@Mr.ankylo345 yeah but from what I’ve heard that whole thing has kind ran a ground.
@@Saurophaganax1931definitely if it were possible to bring dinosaurs back I say we shouldn’t mutate a chicken to resemble one not only is it immoral and wrong but that’s basically creating a news unknown to any environment which could dispel disaster and chaos
Also worth noting, countershading may have given them better survival odds during youth, before reaching the size needed to defend themselves properly. So it may not actually be something thats important to them as adults, just a holdover from when they were young, and countershading would have greatly aided survival.
When I think of extant animals that change their coloration with age, countershading is commonly the adult form, while more aggressive dappled or striped camoflauge is more common for the young.
Why didn’t they lose it in adulthood though? Color can change easily. For example, large tortoises have intricate patterns to camouflage them with the leaves when they are young, but they become mostly unicolor in adulthood, because they don’t need as much camouflage any more.
My wife and I recently completed a bucket list item (for me!) of driving the Alaska Canada Highway round trip. One of the most important stops for me was the Royal Tyrell Museum. It dud not disappoint! There were two fossils I particularly wanted to see for myself. This one and Tiktaalik, which I had read about in Neil Shubin's excellent book, "Your Inner Fish". Just amazing to see these examples of fossil preservation and examination!
Ankylosaur was my absolute favorite as a kid and is still my favorite. This makes both past me and present me very happy :)
i recently got to visit this amazing fossil at the Royal Tyrrell, what an amazing experience. i’m lucky to live in such a fossil rich part of the world. great vid! :)
I live a couple hours from drumheller and visit regularly. Alberta has an amazing and diverse ecology
10:01 - Oh gawd ! He *Comin* all the way ! The Uber-mecha chonk makes capybaras look lithe
Any number of the small feathered dinosaurs out of China would be fun to see you cover if you do continue this series.
You could do one each month and not be done for the year. China has so many great fossils that have been discovered recently.
I love that you have a plushie of Bumpy from Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous on your shelf.
Bumpy!
I went to Alberta recently and visited the Royal Tyrell museum in Drumheller. This is an amazing specimen to say the least! It literally gave me goosebumps when i walked up to it! I highly recommend taking a trip there! They have so many amazing specimens, including an awesome T-rex named "Black Beauty" in its death pose!
I love ankylosaurs so much
Thanks for crediting my photos - and thanks for introducing the whole family to the amazing Royal Tyrrell Museum.
Thank you sir for sharing it.
Ankylosaurs are my absolute favorite dinosaur! I would love to see an overview of all of the described members of this family. Thank you for all of your great content.
I dream of a tyrannosaurus being found in this condition. Such a specimen probably doesn't exist, but can you imagine?
Such a huge specimen in such complete detail, that would be a miracle, but a welcome one. If one does exist out there, we can only hope we'll find it.
I would love to see more videos to this series! An idea for another video is for the best preserved hadrosaurs. I think there are a few "mummified" specimens, and the famous Dakota edmontosaurus hoof that you could feature in the episode. Keep it up Ben!
OMG please continue doing these videos on ancient animals that are really well preserved. Things like this are fantastic and its hard to find information about what the different creatures are. I spent a few hours trying to find research studies, but it is a lot.
Nicely done, Ben. The Tyrell is on my list if/when I get to Alberta again. I remember the announcement when they unveiled Borealopelta so it has been interesting hearing what has been learned from it.
Wow! I saw this in the Royal Tyrell collections before it was put on display! I was doing a project for school, and I got to go all over in the museum and see wicked cool stuff! I still have a picture of it! It’s one of my favorite specimens and I’ve seen it all over social media, even a show about it on tv! And to think I am one of the few that got to go right up close to it without a display barrier… I think those of you who read this now know how excited this makes me haha!
The countershading on Borealopelta makes a lot of sense when put into context. Today's large herbivores are mainly fighting groups of smaller predators whereas Mesozoic-era herbivores had to contend with predators that were much *much* larger and therefore hiding was a smart idea
Ah, the Royal Tyrrel Museum. I haven't had the pleasure of returning their in many years, but going there is a child is what took my interest from just "dinosaurs are cool" towards the first seeds of what would be a proper appreciation for the fields of paleontology and ecology.
You should do a video on Sasha the wholly rhino. I love all Pleistocene species, but when it comes to mummies mammoths seem to get all the love and I’d love to learn more about wholly rhinos. Love your content!
Say Ben, that is an excellent report on the Borealopelta Markmitchelli. I remember when it was found and the buzz it created even then. All this time I had no idea the extimated size of the animal.
I tend to agree with the Bloat and Float scheme. Huge present day animals Bloat and Float, and with the right timing I am convinced that a Borealopelta could indeed have bloated enough to float out to deeper water where once the gas bubble was breached by scavenging activities, the remains would then have sunk down to the bottom.
Of course in the present day, there are ample benthic scavengers who would have consumed any an all soft tissue. Perhaps that biofauna was not yet as developed back then or perhaps this specimen sank into a brine pool or anoxic layer?
Your suggestion of it being washed out to sea in a tsunami like situtation is also a great possibility, and also consistent with the specimen being quickly covered by sediment, which would have prevented scavenging of the soft tissues that were found in the fossil.
When i first saw your video about the well preserved Psittacosaurus specimen i was literally thinking about the more recently found Borealopelta: I was hoping you would eventually talk about it in detail and I'm very glad you did! Definitely make this a series!
Another cool thing about the Royal Tyrrel is that they have an annual lecture series with scientists from around the world presenting their work at a level non-specialists can understand. Many of these lectures are on their youtube channel.
Six years (70,000 hours) to prepare one specimen! Now that's dedication to your job.
My first thought about the counter shading is that there would be a strong selection pressure to for it to help aid the survival of small juvenile specimens and no selection pressure for the coloring to change when the animal grows to near its full adult size even if there are no predators able to take then down by then.
That specimen has to be my favourite fossil of all time. It’s so amazing how well preserved it is. It looks like it could just stand up at any moment.
This was outstanding. The food that the dinosaur ate the various comparisons with other Dino's . Did bro Jeremy draw one of the illustrations? He did a great job too. Well done.😊
I saw this fossil in July 2017 as well, during a family trip to Vancouver.
It was awsome
Please do the actual series, I love the quality of your content, makes it easy to be well informed while been entertaining
*THE IDEA THAT AN ARMOURED SUV* side dino needed counter-shading like a baby Gazzell just highlights how astonishingly dangerous the era was.
Wow. I've seen this fossil before but this video really shows how important it is. Great work Ben and co!
My recommendations for this series are microraptor and sinosauropteryx - we actually know what colours their feathers were.
the fact that we can so accurately reconstruct at least three dinosaurs (Borealopelta, Psittacosaurus and Archaeopteryx) is amazing, and truly is like a window into the alien yet familiar past
Those Ankys in the back are adorable
My uncle was the guy running the digger when they found it! Shawn Funk! Our entire extended family got a behind the scenes tour of the museum after they got it there, I even met Mark Mitchell! It was an absolutely amazing thing to experience for a dinosaur obsessed kid haha
Another thing I love about Borealopelta is that it’s yet another powerful confirmation that our methods for interpreting, extrapolating, and reconstructing morphologies and biomechanics are laudably fucking good at this point 👏👏👏 there is little doubt to be had anymore about that. This is an easy way to disabuse a lay person of the idea that anatomists and paleontologists are simply slapping bones together capriciously. We know quite a bit about how body plans work, we know what made the dubious reconstructions of the Fossil Wars so bad (which also means it’s incredibly hard to lie in that manner in paleontology), and modern day beautiful discoveries like this show that we’re usually on the right track. What a beautiful, beautiful, BEAUTIFUL discovery. It should honestly be considered one of the “prehistoric wonders of the world” for how well it was preserved and how much we are able to learn from it 🥹
WOW that description of the plates and spines were very impressive. Imagine the kind of predators that forced this animal to evolve over time into a walking tank with spikes.
Ankylosaurus is an awesome Dino
I live near the Tyrell, and have visited this specimen in person. Pictures do not do it justice. You can see *eyelids*. The entire museum has world-class exhibits.
Ben, u have a great channel! As a paleontology geek and artist, also sometimes - paleoartist - can’t avoid noticing ur way to deliver information
This is my favorite Find in paleontology EVER!!!!
This is good, please keep doing more! I'd like to think of myself as being on the more "science" side of "pop. science," but I never would have read the journal article(s?) you're using as source material. Maybe "most 'scuffed' but still interesting fossil" could be interesting.
Ooh this is such a good idea for a series! There are so many great lagerstatte fossils! Here is a starting list of some really interesting ones to do vids on:
Materpiscis
Typhloesus
Fossils from the Joggins Fossil Cliffs
Arthropitys bistriata
Longisquama
Coelophysis from the Ghost Ranch area
Vampire squid from Ya Ha Tinda
Stenopterygius crassicostatus with preserved young
Enantiornithines from Las Hoyas
Archaeophis proavus or other fossil from Monte Bolca
Messel formation fossils
Just last year I was fortunate enough to witness borealopelta in person. Truly an astonishing specimen.
This is actually considered to be one of the greatest preserved dinosaur fossils ever unearthed. The man who spent time refining it deserves a nobel prize for his contribution to natural history. Keep up the good work Ben communication of paleontology is essential for understanding life today
I'm so glad you two have survived the crushing tragedies of broken plaster. Oh the humanity! Sue the tyrannosaur and Quetzalcoatlus come to mind for future stories. There were a lot of other species competing for those conifers higher up. It seems more likely the Ankylosaur simply couldn't reach the conifers but loved those succulent, easy to reach ferns.
This video is gold standard - scientific not just pure entertainment, high quality sources with links - obviously you're a true scientist, Ben! 😀👋
i love your work, man. my inner kid gets to vicariously live through your work.
I love how the counterargument is always included. Such a detailed channel.
The way it ended up practically "mummified" in sediment makes me think that it did die (by normal death, some other reasons including drowning, but not necessarily by predation) and float due to bloat as spring rains flowed over recently fire-swept hills/mountains taking it and a lot of silt down stream to be deposited in the same location such that no to very few water predators got to it to destroy the remains.
I saw it in person and was almost moved to tears it is so beautiful. I can't describe how moving an experience it is if you are truly passionate about these kinds of things.
Make a pilgrimage to the Drumheller Royal Tyrell museum if you can. You will not be disappointed.
This is so exciting. I’ve always wondered how we could guess what dinosaurs look like - in this case we don’t have to! Its natural reddish color is so beautiful too. I hope one day I can see the exhibit in-person too because it seems really breathtaking. It helps me imagine how amazing it looked alive
Mines like this are a double edged sword. Without the economic incentive to dig, it would never have been found. Yet one can’t help but think of all the fossils that phosphate mines, coal mines, etc have destroyed. Still, it’s actually kind of interesting to think of the vast expanse of Cretaceous seabed they had to sift through to find something this rare - admirable diligence to find this needle in a vast, sulfidic haystack! They essentially had to surface an entire Cretaceous seabed to do so
Extraordinary. I love how you often explain the deductive reasoning behind conclusions regarding lifestyle and habitat. So often these conclusions are just presented without context and nay-sayers immediately scoff and dismiss the information. I wish more presenters would take the time to both inform and educate the way that you do. Primarily I refer to mainstream presenters, as I know there are also other TH-cam presenters who take the time to explain things, filling the niche that television was originally supposed to occupy.
Always hungry for new insights into the appearance and lives of these long-ago creatures. Thanks!
Great video! I would think that ankylosaurs living in recently burned forests could also make them more susceptible to flash-flooding events since rain isn't slowed by vegetation and is blocked from soaking into the ground by ash, as well as picking up lots of debris. This would also further increase the chances of finding them washed into bodies of water and quickly covered by protective sediment
Interesting, best coverage of this event on TH-cam! 🔥
id love to see one on that mayasaur or albertasaur i forgor, but the one where we got a fossil of a mummified one and it perserved like even the blood n stuff you talked about it on your channel when it was first revealed
I'm glad to see my favorite plastic representative of Ankylosaurus was nearly spot on down to properly extended shoulder spines and color pallette.
In the 80s.
Nice.
Considering everything was larger in the Cretaceous, I'd be interested in seeing a relative size comparison between modern countershaded herbivores and Cretaceous countershaded herbivores. I am willing to opine at this juncture that we would find a very positive correlation to countershading dropoff once the relative sizes of prey and predator are taken into account. Perhaps the Nodosauridae are just the deer of the Cretaceous. That's an odd thought isn't it?
I think it would be cool if you could cover the findings of the juvenile Allosaurus skin impressions
I love the Shield Dinosaurs, Borealopelta and Sauropelta.
The dinosaur was found at the Suncor oil sands facility.
When the shovel operator hit it he had a good hint at what he had found.
Perhaps 30 years ago it would have been buried and forgotten but the oil sands needs good public relations right now with all the environment stuff.
It would/did represent a delay in production.
You can view this dinosaur at the Royal Museum in Drumheller Alberta.
50 or so years ago i used to live at my grandparents who had a coal fire and the amount of fossil leaves we found was amazing but we looked at the in the coal and they went on the fire as we had no idea what they came from :( I wish we had kept many of them as they looked like autumn leaves
There could be a few good reasons for exploiting the burnt forest niche; certainly the benefits of sweet new growth, the benefits of charcoal on the gut - and the releasing of more nutrients from "cooked" food.
At last the scientific information from Markmitchelly . Thanks I look forward to hearing more as it comes out.
Every time I watch your channel I learn new stuff and enjoy it.
Could you please do something on feathers ? these days Artists reconstructions can show anything from fully scaled to fully feathered images, Possibly due to how old the reconstruction itself is. A time line explanation of what families are thought to have evolved them? Ankylosaurs aside it can be difficult to know how to Imajin them. PS possibly an episode for the "Most Accurate" series.
Fantastic work. Fascinating insights into the prehistoric environment too 👌
The Royal Tyrell is set to do a major renovation to the Dinosaur hall this fall, so more of a reason to go back and see what's there. I love that museum with a passion.
More than anyone has a right to know about ankylosaurs, in general, and this one in particular, in one easily digestible presentation. Thanks guys. Your enthusiasm and ability to communicate about this fascinating subject, is one of the quiet gems of TH-cam, thanks again.
I live just a couple of hours away from this guy. Went to see it a couple of years ago. It's truly remarkable.
Hey I just went there recently! Thanks for covering this 🤠
Yes, please consider making this into a series.
I would love to see more videos on these exceptionally preserved fossils that allow for accurate reconstructions of extinct animals. Alternatively, I'd also love to see the opposite, cases where we're able to infer a surprising amount about an animal from very scant fossil remains. Regardless, I'll look forward to more paleo content in the future!
I live in alberta and actually got to see this really exact fossil there. It actually blew my mind. Best road trip ive had in a long time
Saw this fossil in person just over a week ago and it was truly one of the most incredible things I've ever experienced. Gave me goosebumps.
The fact that these things were on the same planet as us is wild
Very thorough analysis. I hope others appreciate as much as me 😊
Heya, just thought you should know that every time you karate chop your desk while handsplaining dinosaur reconstruction, your mic picks it up as a huge bass note and shakes the soeakers in my headphones, home audio, and desktop speakers. Id reccommend not karate chopping the desk, but thats like telling an Italian to talk while sitting on their hands, so instead maybe -8db on low frequencies during editing or something.
I don't know how much information there is on that, but a video about the most accurate non-mammal synapsid reconstruction to date would be interesting
Ankylosaurs are and have always been my favorite dinosaur.
7 thousand hours! Talk about solving a puzzle!
Took me about that long to learn to correctly complete a sudoku!
Props to the miners for telling everyone about that fossil instead just keep digging. What are the chances‽
I would like a look at Dunkleosteus, Megalodon, Patagotitan, and Arctodus focusing on reconstruction with the new information and evidence that is coming out for these animals. Maybe take a look on why certain interpretations were depicted and what shifted the change to what they are depicted as today with scientific evidence.
For the color I think it’s basically as it usually is just a extra defense to avoid confrontation.Borelapelta could most definitely take on the predators in the area but due to the amount and size of them it got it’s color to avoid it as much as possible
I love it how scientists make a very smart hypothesis and give it a very scientific name like "Bloat and Float Hypothesis"
I think the spikes being such a lighter color was a warning signs for predators when they got close so they can see the spikes and maybe decide on not attack it.
i had the joy to see this specimen this spring it was amazing. they have an entire room in the Royal Tyrell Museum dedicated to it. Im very grateful that it is required by law for such discoveries to be given to the proper scientific authorities
something to add- fern spores can often survive passing through the digestive tract, at least in mammals.
Dude! You guys are incredible! Your videos are fascinating and packed with information which you communicate so clearly. Gratitude!!!!
An idea for some future vids who would win in a fight using dinosaurs I'd watch it
I love seeing your nominations for the most accurately reconstructed fossils!
Cool series idea. Gonna do the Edmontosaurus mummy next? Or maybe one of the many well-preserved Chinese fossils?